Hard on the outside, sticky on the inside. Fight your way through the gooey mess and you’ll get to the yellow, sweet part of the fruit that is much yearned for. But there’s more to the jackfruit, and Chennai now has an opportunity to discover all that.
“We present the whole experience of the jackfruit. But I don’t mean the ripe, yellow ones. Those only make for five per cent of the fruit used to prepare what we will have available. Most of the food sold will be made from tender, raw jackfruit or the recently ripened ones,” says Unni Tharakan, one of the organisers of the Chennai Jackfruit Festival.
The three-day affair, commencing May 1, will showcase around 90 products made from the fruit — jams, pickles, pappads, pudding, puttu, payasam, chips, cakes, cupcakes, ice-creams and much more. “Most of the products at the festival are made by individual producers and rural self-help societies,” says Unni and adds that products are sourced from Shillong, Ratnagiri, Pallakad and many other places across the country. Live food counters at the festival will dish up unni appam, kumbil appam, adai, spring rolls, sandwiches, cutlets, bondas, bajjis, biryani, pazhampuri, masala dosa and more, all made from jackfruit.
At the end of each day, will be the highlight of the festival — a spread of over 20 dishes made from jackfruit. The buffet, which starts at 6 p.m., has limited seats and is priced at Rs. 450 per person. Everything else, open to the public, is for sale from 11.30 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. The festival is organised by a group of over 30 people who wanted to raise funds for the Mother Teresa Charitable Trust through a food festival. “We thought we should introduce people to something they wouldn’t have tasted much of, and that’s how we decided on celebrating the jackfruit,” explains Unni. He adds that in Kerala, where jackfruit trees are abundant, about 90 per cent of the fruits fall to the ground, over-ripe and unfit for use. Says Rahul Chelat, another organiser, “Jackfruit wastage in the country costs around Rs. 2,000 crores every year. If properly managed, it will fetch that much more income to the country.”
The fruit, which is available for close to 10 months every year in different parts of the country, has much scope for innovation. While they stuff the fruit in tacos and serve it alongside salsa to give it a Mexican twist, they also host many other products — from the appam to the pappadam — with a touch of local flavour. The ripe, sweet fruit will also be available for sale in packets, along with a variant that’s supplemented with sweet fillings.
“We thought why not promote this humble fruit, show people how it can be used on an everyday basis and introduce Chennai to all the products that have been made from it,” says Rahul.
There’s much to be discovered about the jackfruit — it’s texture, once marinated and cooked, makes it a substitute for meat; according to recent studies, the tender fruit is said to manage sugar levels, is rich in vitamins, calcium and protein and prevents colon cancer; it’s an ingredient used in many south Asian cuisines like Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian; and there are over a hundred products that can be made from the single fruit, many of which will be available for sampling and take-away at the festival.
The Chennai Jackfruit Festival will be held at Chennai Trade Centre.
The Hindu is the media partner for the event.
